free-board
(ˈfriːbɔəd)
[transl. of AF. franc bord: see free a. and board n. Sense 2 seems to have been suggested by sense 1.]
1. Law. In some places the right of claiming a certain quantity of land outside the fence of a park or forest; also, the land thus claimed.
| [? c 1350 Carta T. Dom. Moubray in Dugdale Monasticon (1661) II. 241/1 Et totum boscum quod vocatur Brendewode, cum frankbordo duorum pedum & dimidium, per circuitum illius bosci.] 1676 Coles Free-bord, a small space beyond or without the fence. 1795 Epworth (Linc.) Enclosure Act 25 Any Freeboard, Screed, or Parcel of Land left outside the fences. 1793 in Chancellor Hist. Richmond (1894) 222 The Boundaries of His Majesty's Park at Richmond, and the Free-board thereto belonging. 1894 Ibid., Richmond Park has a free-board of 16½ feet outside the boundary-wall. |
2. a. Naut. (See quot. 1867.)
| 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. (1757) 268 Not having above sixteen inches free board..the water continually ran over us. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Plank-sheer, The space between this [plank-sheer] and the line of flotation has latterly been termed the free-board. 1880 Times 6 Aug. 5/3 According to this vessel's construction, she ought to have had 6 ft. freeboard. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1896 McClure's Mag. Dec. 142/2, I saw Mrs. McPhee swell and swell under her garance-coloured gown. There is no small free-board to Janet McPhee, nor is garance any subdued tint. 1925 J. Joly Surface-Hist. Earth iii. 54 The change of buoyancy of the magma which must arise if the substratum changes from the solid to the liquid state... How will this change affect the ‘freeboard’ of the continents? When we melt basalt in the laboratory we easily float granite in the fluid rock. It floats with a good free-board, and appears to preserve its buoyancy indefinitely. |
Hence ˈfree-boarded a.
| 1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 442/2 Low free-boarded, shallow, beamy boats. |